Thoughts In Brief: Louisville

• That was the best offensive performance by Wake Forest ever. Literally. 625 yards of offense, 8-13 on 3rd down. Holy moly.
• John Wolford was an absolute maestro. There is no other word for it. 28-34 for 461 yards, 5 touchdowns, no picks, and another touchdown on the ground. I genuinely believe it may go down as the greatest single game quarterback performance in Wake Forest history. He didn’t do it alone, though. Greg Dortch was a monster again. 10 snags for 167 touchdowns and a school record 4 receiving TDs (it should’ve been 5). Scotty Washington was also an absolute terror early, using all of his 6’5” frame to cause havoc on Louisville’s secondary early. Seven receivers caught passes, and the offensive line was impeccable, giving Wolford all day to make his reads almost every down. The air attack was impeccable.
• I couldn’t be happier for Matt Colburn. After being snubbed by Louisville in a way I consider frankly disgusting (he had committed and had his scholarship offer yanked 2 days before signing day), the bruising back had a career outing, tallying 134 yards on 24 carries for a 5.6 average and a 39 long that would have been a touchdown if not for an ankle tackle. Frankly, Colburn was almost singlehandedly responsible for breaking the spirits of Louisville as the Demon Deacons went on a march that burned off about 7 minutes of game clock in the 4th with the Deacs up big.
• I will be forever amused that Bobby Petrino insisted on calling timeouts when they could have just let the Deacs run the clock down, allowing for the 44 yard John Wolford to Chuck Wade touchdown that was not only a highly satisfying dagger, but was also the play that finally allowed it to be a record breaking performance in terms of yardage production. Hey Louisville, Presbyterian’s defense didn’t give us as much as yours did. Not so easy when you don’t have the playbook, now is it?
• Louisville got a lot of yardage and plenty of points but honestly a lot of it (especially Lamar Jackson’s last touchdown) was in utter garbage time. I’d argue a lot of the game was garbage time. Not only did Essang Bassey pick off the former Heisman winner at a key juncture, the defense of the Deacs feasted on Louisville’s offensive line, racking up 11 tackles for loss and an extremely impressive 7 sacks.
• If we play even half this well going forward, I stand by what I said in my last piece: no one except Notre Dame is safe. This team is on a mission, and it’s clear that the loss to Georgia Tech bothered everyone from coaches on down. The offensive playcalling was really good, everyone executed, and Jay Sawvel.has proven to be as good of a replacement for Mike Elko as anyone could have possibly expected at defensive coordinator. That game was all sweet. Well done EVERYBODY. Yes, everyone.
• One last note, I hate the rule that robbed Dortch of that touchdown. It was correct by the letter of the law, and there are applications where it makes sense, and Dortch probably should’ve just held it in tighter instead of extending too far, but dang it, as far as I’m concerned that’s a turnover in technicality only.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments. On to the next. Go Deacs.

—SF